Maybe this is only a single take (for Elko's sake), but already an article from Durham spewing "Elko skipped town in the middle of the night". Hopefully they'll remain proud and thankful for what he's done there rather than turn on him and make him a villain.

https://balldurham.com/2023/11/27/duke-football-mike-elko-flees-durham-middle-night/

That doesn't even hold up to any scrutiny. This wasn't deceptive. Duke is a basketball school, and has always treated football like we treat, well, basketball. Second class citizen. And that's okay, but they can't then be surprised he left for a big name program on a campus that loves and breathes football.

Dude the Duke fanbase literally has a large faction of fans that outwardly don't support/care about football and there are twitter arguments happening between the Basketball Only Duke fans and the All Sports Duke fans about thanking Mike Elko on twitter and whether a Duke fan should. Its wild.

fightintxaggie10 said:

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Dude the Duke fanbase literally has a large faction of fans that outwardly don't support/care about football and there are twitter arguments happening between the Basketball Only Duke fans and the All Sports Duke fans about thanking Mike Elko on twitter and whether a Duke fan should. Its wild.

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That is wild. Elko probably couldn't get out of there soon enough then.

fightintxaggie10 said:

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Dude the Duke fanbase literally has a large faction of fans that outwardly don't support/care about football and there are twitter arguments happening between the Basketball Only Duke fans and the All Sports Duke fans about thanking Mike Elko on twitter and whether a Duke fan should. Its wild.

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Guarantee you 95% of those on Twitter are T-shirt fans who didn't attend the uni

Whatever helps them sleep at night. . .

The lack of self awareness on this site is astonishing. Are Duke fans are about as bitter as A&M fans were about Jimbo before we fired him? How about the bitterness on here when it was announced that we were going to hire Stoops? Were we as gracious as Duke fans or more so?

I think it's reasonable for them to be upset he left - the players/fans liked him. Hopefully, he addressed his players properly.

If Duke stole our Lacrosse coach, I'd wish him well and thank him for rebuilding our Lacrosse program. Do we have a Lacrosse program?

What was he suppose to do, hang around until they let him go?

Some of you worry too much about what other people say about A&M.

No coach ever leaves with a sappy hug fest with all the players and everyone is happy they are going.

It sucks for them, but the Duke football fans I know understood there was no way he stuck around for another year. They loved the experience while he was there, but it was clear he was too good of a coach for them to hang onto.

It was kind of strange how it all went down. Late Sunday afternoon after it was being reported that he had accepted the job he announced that he was going to meet with the players to inform them that he had been offered the job but that he had not made a decision yet. After that he was on a plane to CS. Maybe he ended up telling his players that he was leaving, but if he told them he was undecided and then never told them anything before flying to CS that is a little odd

I hope we beat them in basketball this year!

It looked like they were pretty grateful to him. It mentioned he informed his players and staff so that shouldn't be a big surprise to any of them. I'm guessing the writer didn't like him leaving early in the morning like it's any of his business to begin with.

HoustonAg2106 said:

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It was kind of strange how it all went down. Late Sunday afternoon after it was being reported that he had accepted the job he announced that he was going to meet with the players to inform them that he had been offered the job but that he had not made a decision yet. After that he was on a plane to CS. Maybe he ended up telling his players that he was leaving, but if he told them he was undecided and then never told them anything before flying to CS that is a little odd

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With the speed it all seemed to happen, I think it's possible he didn't have time to tell them in person?

I saw the Duke AD press conference, and she admitted there was full communication going on between Elko and the AD. I also saw some twitter comments that Elko had a team meeting with the players. So, if all true, not sure what else you want him to do. The fact that they flew out late at night had more to do with A&M wanting to get this out there quickly since we have transfer portal and recruiting to be done.

who cares about this crap. happens every time a coach leaves a program for somewhere else. the former fanbase is bitter and tries to come up with reason to rip apart the character of the departing coach.

Were we any better when Gillespie went to Kentucky?

M.C. Swag said:

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Were we any better when Gillespie went to Kentucky?

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we were understanding for the most part. Disappointd, but understanding.

AgOutsideAustin said:

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No coach ever leaves with a sappy hug fest with all the players and everyone is happy they are going.

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In this day and age I think it would be almost impossible for a coach to leave one place without the whole world knowing they were leaving before the players could be told by the outgoing coach.

Re: Jimbo we also had three straight years of disappointment building to a tipping point. Dukies went from 0 to f*** you in like six hours flat.

That's what happens at stepping stone schools when the coach leaves for greener pastures.

We did the same with BCG in basketball (although people like him now again, generally)...

rootube said:

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The lack of self awareness on this site is astonishing. Are Duke fans are about as bitter as A&M fans were about Jimbo before we fired him? How about the bitterness on here when it was announced that we were going to hire Stoops? Were we as gracious as Duke fans or more so?

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So for conversation sake if I said instead, "too bad Duke fans, suck it" that would sit better for you? And it was just a question. I don't give a rats azz how they feel, but I do think it probably means something to Elko. People like to leave and think people appreciate what they did with their time there. That's self awareness.

GigEmLaw said:

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I saw the Duke AD press conference, and she admitted there was full communication going on between Elko and the AD. I also saw some twitter comments that Elko had a team meeting with the players. So, if all true, not sure what else you want him to do. The fact that they flew out late at night had more to do with A&M wanting to get this out there quickly since we have transfer portal and recruiting to be done.

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The meeting with the players on Sunday was all that should be expected of him. My point was that if he told the players during that meeting he had not made a decision yet that was most likely a lie because it was being reported that he had accepted the job at that time

Ghost of Bisbee said:

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fightintxaggie10 said:

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Dude the Duke fanbase literally has a large faction of fans that outwardly don't support/care about football and there are twitter arguments happening between the Basketball Only Duke fans and the All Sports Duke fans about thanking Mike Elko on twitter and whether a Duke fan should. Its wild.

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Guarantee you 95% of those on Twitter are T-shirt fans who didn't attend the uni

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Too bad I can't choose the LMAO emoji. Who in the hell would be these supposed T-shirt Duke football fans? Basketball maybe, but football, come on man you have to have a little more common sense than that.

Is there any "good" way to leave?

Bitterness only means they were upset to lose him. Because he's good. That should be all that matters to us.

Greetings said:

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Ghost of Bisbee said:

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fightintxaggie10 said:

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Dude the Duke fanbase literally has a large faction of fans that outwardly don't support/care about football and there are twitter arguments happening between the Basketball Only Duke fans and the All Sports Duke fans about thanking Mike Elko on twitter and whether a Duke fan should. Its wild.

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Guarantee you 95% of those on Twitter are T-shirt fans who didn't attend the uni

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Yeah. Not sure most realize Duke is very small, for a power 5 football program. Less than 7k undergrad. Lots of t-shirt fans bc of the cult of Coach K.

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I think it's something like 85% percent of the students at Duke are out of state and another 10% from other countries. So yeah, they have a higher T-shirt fan base than Bama or sip.

StinkyPinky said:

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rootube said:

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The lack of self awareness on this site is astonishing. Are Duke fans are about as bitter as A&M fans were about Jimbo before we fired him? How about the bitterness on here when it was announced that we were going to hire Stoops? Were we as gracious as Duke fans or more so?

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So for conversation sake if I said instead, "too bad Duke fans, suck it" that would sit better for you? And it was just a question. I don't give a rats azz how they feel, but I do think it probably means something to Elko. People like to leave and think people appreciate what they did with their time there. That's self awareness.

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You can use any language you like. I'm just pointing out that Duke fans are going to have a negative reaction to Elko leaving. As a coach you come in and convince players to commit and work together to build something. It's has to sting when that same guy says "I'm out I got a better offer" in the middle of the night in year two of a fantasy run. I don't necessarily fault Elko for what he did but I can certainly understand the frustration from Duke fans.